Memorial Services and Funerals

Above all else, a Memorial Service or Funeral should celebrate the life and living of the deceased.  Attempts to use such an event as an opportunity for conversion are both wrong and mean spirited.  A reading I have used quite often in Memorial Services expresses my general philosophy in preparing a service: 

 "When sorrow comes, let us accept it simply, as a part of life.  Let the heart be open to pain; let it be        stretched by it.  All the evidence we have says that this is the better way.  An open heart never grows bitter.  Or if it does, it cannot remain so.  In the desolate hour, there is an outcry, a clenching of the hands upon emptiness, a burning pain of bereavement, a weary ache of loss.  But anguish, like ecstasy, is not forever.  There comes a gentleness, a returning quietness, a restoring stillness.  This, too, is a door to life.  here, also, is a deepening of meaning--and it can lead to dedication, a going forward to the triumph of the soul, the concquering of the wilderness.  In the process will come a deepening inward knowledge that, in the final reckoning, all is well."

                                   by A. Powell Davies

The service begin with the acknowledgement of the loss and pain and progresses into a time to reflect and celebrate our memories of the deceased, and closes with the message that life, even with all it's setbacks and suffering, is ultimately worth living.

If you need a minister in the Hilton Head Island / Bluffton area to plan and lead a Memorial  Service that is spiritual (but not religious) or secular and meaningful, then please contact me for available days and times.

My basic philosophy on marriage is simple; if two people love each other and wish to acknowledge their love and commitment, then so be it.  We do not choose who we love any more than we choose to eat, breathe, or obey the law of gravity.  We may be able to choose the person(s) we join in matrimony but we we do not choose the person(s) we love.  

That being said, a wedding (by any and all names) is generally a public acknowledgement of the private commitment of two people.  I believe the ceremony should reflect the traditions, beliefs, and rituals of both individuals.  If you are looking for a spiritual (but not religious) service, a secular but meaningful service, or anything in between, anywhere in the Hilton Head Island / Bluffton area, please contact me for more information